Wormit and Newport-on-Tay – The Tay Bridges from Fife
A few hours.
The route
Two bridges cross the Tay between Fife and Dundee, and the Fife shore looks out on both.
At Wormit Bay the railway bridge strides out over a shingle beach, with a memorial to the disaster of 1879 beside it. Along the shore, Newport-on-Tay faces Dundee across the water, with coffee at a cheesemonger's café on the High Street.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Bracken Treehouse at Airdit in Balmullo, 5 miles away. Sleeps 2; next free Sun 25 Oct to Tue 27 Oct.
The day
Wormit and Newport
The railway bridge and its story at Wormit, then coffee in Newport with the road bridge and Dundee across the water.
Wormit Bay
Park in the car park at the west end of Bay Road, on the Fife Coastal Path at Wormit Bay, with the Tay Bridge running out over the water to Dundee. Three pieces of granite face where the middle of the first bridge stood. In a storm on 28 December 1879 its central spans fell into the firth as a train crossed to Dundee, and the granite carries the names of the 59 people known to have died, with lines by the poet Ian Nimmo White. The stumps of the old piers still rise from the water beside the bridge that replaced it in 1887. The coastal path leads on from the bay to Balmerino.
About 5 min by car
Fig & Fromage
Coffee
Fig & Fromage is on the High Street in Newport-on-Tay, a cheesemonger, deli and café in one, with a cheese counter, charcuterie and olives. The café serves coffee, bagels and ciabattas, and cheese and charcuterie boards from the counter, and it's licensed, so you can take wine or beer from the deli shelves with your food. Along the street at number 1, Tatha Gallery shows Scottish art, Wednesday to Saturday from 10.30am to 4pm; ring 01382 690800 first in a week when the show is changing. The Tay Road Bridge comes ashore beside the town, with a path for walkers running between its carriageways.
If it rains
On a wet day, the café in Newport is under cover.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Fife.
Photograph by Fig & Fromage Cheesemonger, Deli & Cafè via Google